THE 



TCEKISH QUESTION. 



BY COUNT A. DE GUROWSKl, 

AUTHOR OF '' RUSSIA AS IT IS." 



Horcht ! die Glocken hallen dumpf zusammen, 
Und der Zeiger hat voUbrucht seiu Lauf. — Sch[ller. 



-»< m^m > *^ 



NEW YORK: 

WILLIAM TAYLOR & COMPANY 

No. 18 ANN STREET. 

1854. 



/ 



THE 



TUEKISH QUESTION. 



BY COUNT A. DE GUROWSKI, 

AUTHOR OF "RUSSIA AS IT IS." 



Horcht! die Glocken hallen dumpf zusammen, 
Und der Zeiger hat vollbracht sein Lauf. — Schiller. 



■^#» H ' 




NEW YORK : ^ ! 

WILLIAM TAYLOR & COMPANY, \ 

No. 18 ANN STREET. ] 

1854. I 



Gi3 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1854, by 

WM. TAYLOR & COMPANY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 

Southern District of New York. 



THE TURKISH QUESTION, 



I. 

A few months more and I shall have completed the five 
years of my apprenticeship to freedom, and become a lawful 
American citizen.- As a preparatory step I have therefore 
renounced my allegiance to any sovereign, but not, to what 
in my conviction appears to be right and the truth ; nor 
can I renounce the interest felt in the destinies of a race to 
which I belong by birth, — destinies whose study absorbed 
the best years of my life. I can preserve this so much the 
more cheerfully, as the present as weU as the future, of the 
Slavi, does not and very likely never wiU, interfere with the 
bright onward progress and the real interests of this, my 
adopted and sincerely beloved country. She bestows on me 
freedom, and this boon I use. 

America allows a free expression to every conviction and 
opinion. Free discussion of every subject is the source of 
life here. Therefore a varied exposition of the questions and 
issues which are now agitating the world, must on the whole 
prove beneficial, averting the effects of a precipitate and 
thus often erroneous ]udo:raent. 



THE TURKISH QUESTION, 



The interests, the fate of the Ottomans and of Turkey, 
excite and absorb, for the moment, the attention of the 
world. The holiest and the purest principles and motives 
are being continually invoked on behalf of Turkey. Let us, 
therefore consider them from another point of view than that 
of the Anglo-French. 



II. 

Nearly everybody familiar with general history, knows the 
nature, the essence indeed, of Mohammedanism, as well 
as the modes in which it conquered a foothold on European 
soil, and superposed an Asiatic tribe on the Christian natives 
of the invaded and conquered country. By a fanaticism, of 
a most bloody and arrogant hue, which makes the true 
believer look down on all who do not acknowledge the 
Kuran, as scarcely human beings, the Osmanlis became 
during many centuries, a terrible scourge for nations. But 
such an unnatural tension could not last for ever. As soon as 
it began to give way, there began also at first a slow, but un- 
interrupted decline of their merciless power, — a power found- 
ed on the most brutal subjection, and which consists in reduc- 
ing the conquered to a most absolutely relen tless civil, reli- 
gious and moral abjection. 

Nowhere, did the Turks carry with them any of the 
germs of peaceful order and development. They encamped 
in Europe but did not take root in its soil by means of either 
agriculture, arts or industry of any kind. Thus devastation 
was an unavoidable result of their rule, equally as oppres- 



THE TUIIKISH QIKSTIOX. 



sion of the Christians, flows largely from their rehgious creed. 
By this creed their character, their opinions, their laws, 
their customs, and even their maimers are formed ; by the 
Kuran, the Turks must stand or fall. 

Tempered by fanaticism, a comparative but organized 
minority established its domination over large, but less war- 
like and disorganized majorities. The Turks, imbrued with 
the blood of Christians, form a paramount nation, having 
openly exercised for centuries, and persisting in it still, albeit 
less violently, the most sanguinary absolutism. This decrease 
in cruelty, however, is not the result of humanity but of 
weakness. They are now in a state of decline and decora- 
position. And the chemical process increases its corrosive 
action the more it approaches to the final dissolution. 

Under this minority, there groaned and still groans, various 
nationalities, linked together, only by the chain of galley- 
slaves. They have to work for the turbaned master, to pay 
the tribute, to entertain laziness, to stuff a fetid carcass, 
crippling any expansion, and poisoning every vitality. For 
centuries their bloody svf eat served to fatten the Turk ; their 
domestic hearth was violated and desecrated, and child- 
ren were torn from their parents to satisfy the lust of the 
Mohammedan. The only answer which they got to their 
complaints from Cadis, Muftis, Agas, Pashas, and Yizirs, was 
the edge of the yatagan, severing their throats. jSTow ail 
this is to be, at once, obliterated, by the oppressed, through 
the incantations of French and English politicians, and of a 
motley crowd of self-styled liberals. 

These men admire the past fierceness of the Ottomans, 
even as they admire that of the so-called royal beasts of 
prey. But even this brute grandeur has long since disappeared. 
The substance is gone, the shadow only remains. The lions 
and tigers have now become jackals and even worse. 

The Turks in Europe are effete, lazy and filthy ; infect- 



6 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 



ing as well the air as the soil. If there ever were any bet- 
ter spirit in the Kuran, it is now a dead letter for the 
many and above all for the so-called innovators. The Kuran 
as a creed is worn out. 

Any lust%lness, obscenity and crime contained or allowed by 
the ''book of books," survives, becoming either a religious or 
common law, penetrating and directing the practice, the cus- 
toms and the daily usages of the Turks ; — it may be said 
that the bad, alone remains, and in it they revel. After the 
extinction of their religious fervor, the Turks became a prey 
to moral and material disorder, exhibiting in all directions 
the elements of a rapid dissolution. Bad, infamous, and 
immoral customs, are now about the only religion left among 
them ; the poorer classes delight in lewdness and filthiness, 
and the wealthier ones, because they get drunk on alcohol 
and wines, are called civilized, forsooth ! 

Woman is now as she always was, maintained in the most 
abject, degrading state. She is only an implement for lust. 
The harem is the domestic shrine of the Turk. 

Is there any real, social or puljlic virtue possible ; any 
amelioration or progress to be expected for a country where 
woman is degraded to this extent, and that by religion, by 
laws, by customs, and general notions ; where she is so dis- 
gustingly reduced as to serve simply as a utensil for the sat- 
isfaction of material passion and pleasure. 

The partizans and admirers of the Turkish regime look 
and take much pains to impress the Christian world with the 
belief, that slavery has been utterly suppressed by the pre- 
sent Sultan and the Europeanized ministers who surround 
him. 

The great Yessir Bazaary, a slave market, was indeed 
closed by the order of the Sultan in 1846, but slaves are 
still publicly sold in other places. In fact the Turks have 
shut up one great bazaar in Constantinople and opened se- 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 



veral smaller ones, where the poor victims are huddled to- 
gether in miserable, subterraneous dens and cellars, accord- 
ing to the testimony of all travelers.. 

The slave markets are in full activity ; they are open six 
days a week. Males and females are exposed in a state of 
nudity ; and how, indeed, without this traffic, could the 
harems be filled with women, eunuchs and servants ? 

A duty upon slaves is continued to be levied at the cus- 
tom-house at Constantinople. 

How well this infamous traffic is remunerative may be 
concluded from the fact, that, if for two slaves bought by a 
slave dealer in Africa, one can be brought safely to the mar- 
ket, the dealer has a very lucrative business. Circassian 
women and boys for the her ems are even brought from the 
Black Sea, under the protection of an English flag. 

The Circassian dealers in white human flesh, m girls and 
boys, are men of might and consideration. Government 
newspapers advertise their sales. 

And those who condemn slavery and slave traffic, and marts 
for women in this country, who justly thunder against the slave 
auctions at New- Orleans, bestow their best sympathies and make 
speeches on behalf of the Turks as props of liberty and civiliza- 
tion,^- and even wish to preserve and tenderly nurse an order of 
things where eunuchism prevails ; where slavery and slave traffic 
have not even the excuse of being a necessity for the cultivation of 
the soil, for developing the resources of the country, but are des- 
tined to supply the most infamous use of women and boys. 
* An Honorable Member of Congress. 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 



III. 

The friends of Turkey have found, however, a panacea to 
cure the evils prevaiUng there ; to arrest its decomposition ; 
to restore life, and infuse fresh and vigorous pulsations ; to 
give morality and purity, in fact, to their civilized Turks. 
All this is to be obtained by the celebrated Reform or Tan- 
zimout. This is to heal the wounds, reinvigorate the state, 
transform the government, and the decrepit nation. How- 
ever, up to the present time, in spite of being in operation 
for years, the action of the Tanzimout has been most cor- 
rosive ; accelerating the catastrophe which it was intended 
to prevent. Even the celebrated Mr. Layard states this in 
his writings, wherever he has occasion to speak of the re- 
form ; but latterly he has become its fervent advocate. 

Collecting together all the evidence given by partial and 
impartial travelers, the Tanzimout appears to us either a 
sham or an imposition. 

These reforms have taken the heart and soul out of the 
people. 

Aiming at violently Europeanizing the Turks, these re- 
forms have rather, miserably bastardized the whole race ; 
making them neither Christians nor Mohammedans ; neither 
Asiatics nor Europeans. Every intelligent man knows that 
the difference between the state of civilization and culture ; 
between the social and civil institutions of any state of Eu- 
rope whatever, and that of Turkey is radical, enormous, and 
most deeply rooted. 

And these reforms, thus violently and summarily intro- 



THE TUKKISII QUESTION. 9 

duced, were modelled on countries like France and England, 
the most opposite in every respect to Turkey. 

A partial object of the European hired, and Turkish per 
verted reformers, was to cover, as it were, the dead corpse 
with a dye ; but the main point, for all of them, was to 
force a revenue, heedless, whether the measures, led at length 
to absolute ruin or no. Generally, this is the aim of all re- 
formers, and their intention too, who, instead of beginning 
with morally and intellectually elevating the masses of the 
people ; try to make money. 

The reforms of the Pope go, hand in hand, with those of 
the Sultan. Both try to obtain large incomes for the sake of 
keeping up, the one, the Cardinals ; the other, the Pashas 
and their respective tails. 

The essence, however, as well as the form of Islamism 
puts every thing into the hands of the Sultan. Thus all de- 
pends on the individuality of the rulers, and of those entrusted 
by him with various portions of the power. The pashas are 
the knots of the net, extending over the whole country ; and 
each of them with a power nearly as absolute as that of the 
Sultan himself. Their corruption, tyranny and grinding op- 
pression are not contested even by Turkophiles. 

Few rare exceptions are of no avail. The whole govern- 
ment is in the hands of the pashas. This always will be so. 
For a sovereign brought up and educated in the harem, must 
necessarily be ignorant, brutal or effeminate ; lacking the 
knowledge of men and things. Those who, centuries ago, ex- 
tended and established the Ottoman sway, were brought up 
in active life ; in camps and on battle-fields. But now the 
Sultans are the tools of the intriguers, by whom they are 
surrounded. 

Thus over the corruption of the pashas, neither the Sul- 
tan nor the law exercises any control. With few exceptions 
the pashas are without even the rudiments of education. 



10 THE TURKIdll QUESTIOX. 

They, however, are the directors, the expounders and car- 
riers out of the reform. 



lY. 



The most fertile regions of the old world were for centuries 
smitten with the curse of barreness, under the Turkish rule. , 
Every traveler, whatever may be his opinions, attests the in- 
efficiency, laziness, filthiness and indolence of the Turks. 

Their rule has not built a village or hamlet, tilled an acre; 
or scarcely planted a tree : but has destroyed thousands uponi 
thousands of acres, trauvsforming them into deserts or pesti-- 
lential plains. Time has only one sad, uninterrupted audi 
comfortless tale to tell, of moral sickness and imbecility ; of 
material devastation. 

Notwithstanding all this, Turkey, which does not possess- 
a single road or even any rudiments of agriculture, was to: 
be suddenly converted, into a manufacturing country, and to; 
make all things for herself, as do the most industrial parts- 
of Europe. This was to be obtained by a magic spell, by) 
Aladin's Lamp, or through some magic wand, in the hands of 
the imported reformers. By their incantations, the empty 
coffers, of the Seraglio, were to have been, uninteruptedly, 
filled. 

But wholesale importations of the implements and instru- 
ments of European civilization, will not give life to a coipse ; 
they will alter neither personal disposition nor social institu- 
tions. Such a proceeding gives the mechanism, without giv- 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 11 

ing even the ability to handle it ;but in no way can it create 
a spirit, or restore a body decrepit through old age. These 
things, to be appreciated, do not require to be backed by 
even plausible considerations. 

Whatever has been the result of the superficial and mo- 
mentaneous success, obtained by reform, it has not been by 
any real effort or progress of the Turks themselves, but 
either by the Slavi, the Greeks, the Armenians, or by the 
direct exertion of French, English, Belgian or German set- 
tlers. Conscientious foreigners, lured to Constantinople and 
Turkey, tell all the same tale of disappointment and wasted 
exertions. If something, very insignificant even, has been 
done to improve the material condition of Turkey, no such 
effect has been produced on the Turks themselves. 

As long as the Kuran is the fundamental law of the Em- 
pire, no civilization, progress, or reform, is possible. All these 
essays of reform, for more than one reason, have cost more 
than they could bring in and instead of filling the treasury, 
bled it to death. Misery and famine are as common as ever 
and the daily markets of Constanthiople are regulated by 
the maaimuin. The Turks, themselves the worst producers 
of all, impede and depress the productive powers of others. 

Thus beneath the sham attempts at reform lie all the symp- 
tons of decay ; as likewise beneath the principles of tolera- 
tion, so bepraised by hired writers,* lie all the elements of 
deadly hatred, persecution and violent struggle. 

In this way, the Tanzimout, instead of shedding a roseate 
dawn over the Ottomans, has materially contributed to dig 
their grave. Tlie malady has neither been cured nor stopped, 
nay, the mortification even extends itself more rapidly. Fate 
is stronger than galvanic attempts to stop its agony. The 
Turkish race declines, diminishes yearly in numbers, dies out ; 
disappearing as well in Asia as in Europe. To accelerate its 

* Europeans in the Turkish service at Constantinople. 



12 THE TLT.KISPI QUESTION. 



extinction, it is asserted that forced abortion, in all classes, 
is the most common practice among Turkish women. Not 
only the present embryo is destroyed, but means are used to 
prevent all chances of future conceptions. 

In the process of galvanization, the army however, has 
been reorganised and brought to a certain order. At the 
present time, sparks of ancient fierceness have been animat- 
ing it. However, these brute quahties of a murderous order 
are always the last to disappear, ay, even stagnant waters, 
when stirred up, bring sparkling gases to the surface. But 
it is not life. 

And even conceding that the army is well organised and 
put on a respectable, martial and menacing footing, what of 
that ? If, in the whole Turkish government, the army is the 
only well organised branch, then it must necessarily eat up 
all the remaining scanty resources of the land. 

And how long, can any army whatever, through its own 
individual organisation or efficiency, be able to stay the ruin 
of an Empire ? 

When armies remain as the last resource of a country, 
then, truly, is its death-knell sounding. 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 



y. 

Such are the features of the physical and moral state of 
tlie Turks ; those cherished pets of philanthropists and far- 
seeing politicians. This paramount minority* of putrid op- 
pressors, is to be sustained, by the so-called civilization 
against the oppressed who, are increasing and possess all the 
germs of life, expansion, aiid growth, and who are moreover 
Christians. 

This christian majority, the original owners of the country ; 
for centuries its sole cultivators under the most fearful odds, 
with whose blood, spilt by the Turks, the soil is deeply im- 
pregnated, shall it be sacrificed for the sake of a diplomatic, 
heartless, and stupid expediency ; in order, to maintain and 
preserve, the, already tottering, Ottoman edifice ? 

To these Christians is held out the mirage of toleration and 
reform, under the patronage of England and France. This 
is not new to the oppressed. Toleration and reform are al- 
ready of older standing : but they have not prevented, ever 
since their introduction, the most bloody persecutions of 
Christians from Bosnia down to Lebanon and the plains of 
Syria. 

Here again, Mr. Layard, is an eminent authority, notwith- 
standing that his actual tenderness for the Turks is quite 
equal, at present, to the dreadful description, given by him 
of the extermination of the Nestorian and Maronite Chris- 
tians. 

However great, for the future, the v>-atehfulness of the 
agents appointed, ad hoc, by European powers may be, they 
will not be able to prevent the acts of fanaticism, cruelty, 

* In Europe 1,000,000, Mohammedans agaiust 14,000,000 Cbnstians,half 
of whom, are of the Slavi race. 



14 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 



and murder, that will certainly be perpetrated by the Turks. 

The influence of any Consul for the purposes of good and 
just government, does not extend beyond the town, where he 
resides ; nor can this influence, be often exercised in favor of 
the oppressed rayahs. 

The residence of a British consul, at Salonica, could not 
prevent, in 1846, the perpetration, by a Turkish Pasha, of 
some of the most fearful atrocities. 

A complaint, brought before similar tutelary authorities, 
will not heal a deadly wound, restore life to the murdered, or 
rebuild the ruins of destroyed homes. 

Experience has sufiiciently taught the Christians, how il- 
lusory are the hopes of toleration or civil equality^ where the 
immediate authority is wielded by their most bitter enemies. 
And, in such hands, the destiny of Christians, if the Anglo- 
French protectorate succeeds, will remain. An approxima- 
tion, between the two principles and races, is beyond any hu- 
man possibility and still less is an amalgamation. 

It is now declared that, in criminal law cases, the evidence 
of Christians, shall be of equal weight with that of the Mos- 
sulmans. But if the judge remain a Mossulman, of what 
avail will be the evidence ; and as the Kuran will always be 
the ruling code, in what manner, will a Christian be able to 
obtain justice? 

It is not necessary to wait for the action of time, as com- 
mon sense already shows that, all similar projects must fall to 
the ground and remain ineffective, since they are unnatural. 

Events will show, how the mass of Christians, taught by 
the experience of centuries, will become the devoted subjects 
of the so-called reformed Turks. At present, these Chris- 
tians are not allowed to decide for themselves, but politicaus, 
diplomats, philanthropists, and occasionally even renegades 
determine all, on their behalf, in Constantinople, Paris and 
London. 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 15 



YI. 

According to the widespread and loud declarations 
of such men, freedom and civilization are in danger and they 
continually appeal to the world to rescue them. Turkey 
and the Turks, champions of civilization ! Whatever may 
be the originality of history in her creations or her march, it 
would be the first time that she desecrated freedom and civ- 
ilization so far as to make a fetid dung-heap for freedom's 
womb. What a sacrilege 1 

But to serve the heartless purposes of politicians and 
diplomats, history is violated, perverted and public con- 
science misled by misrepresentations ; and all those who 
struggle for their religious liberty and national independence 
against the humane and enlightened Turks are held as robbers 
and traitors. 

Evidences of such perversion would swell out a pamphlet 
to a volume. Take one from among many. On the two ex- 
tremities of the Ottoman empire exist two populations who, 
protected by natural defences, continually make efforts to 
maintain their religious and national independence. 

On the west the Montenegrins, Christians of Slavic ori- 
gin, inhabit a small group of mountains, neither of great ele- 
vation nor inaccessible, and surrounded wholly by the Turk- 
ish empire. 

The number of these hardy mountaineers amounts to 
100,000 souls. This insignificant population, about a century 
ago, unaided by any power on earth, with superhuman efforts, 
succeeded in liberating itself from the Turkish yoke, at an 



16 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 

epoch when the power of the Turks was still strong and 
menacing. This tribe still maintains its independence by 
bloody struggles. 

It is easy to understand that frequent broils occur on the 
frontiers between them and the neighboring Turks. 

When, last year, Omar Pasha threatened this poor and 
heoric people with extermination, he was applauded by all 
his adherents, revolutionists, liberals and publicists of the 
western camp. The Montenegrins being called by them rob- 
bers and thieves, solely because they did not share in their 
sympathies and devotion for the Turks. 

I conceed that the Montenegrins descending into the 
plains carry off Turkish cattle and bread stuffs, but let us 
now see what is the occupation of the heroes of the Turk- 
ophiles. 

In the east the Circassians, ten times more numerous than 
the Montenegrins possess an extensive range of mountains, 
bathed by two seas, and which form the most inaccessible 
stronghold on earth. 

They resist Russia ; their warlike, savage heroism is in- 
contestable ; but in every respect their position and numbers 
procure them advantages which the Montenegrins never 
possessed, who being Christians are therefore contempti- 
ble. 

The Circassians on the other hand are prized because 
heathens or Mohammedans. The Montenegrins cultivate 
and till the soil with their own hands. The Circassians do 
this with and traffic in slaves — fwhite ones !) They breed and 
bring up their sons and daughters for the harems of the 
Turks ; themselves are sodomites and in order to sustain this 
nolle usage and traffic resort to kid-napping and child-stealing. 
Hence are they proclaimed to be virtuous heroes, and the 
world laments their destiny. So much for good faith, hu- 
mane and generous feelings ; high-sounding words forsooth ! 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 17 

Shibboleths which easily conceal egotism, knavery or 
monomania. 

The same love of truth is displayed by Anglo-French poli- 
ticians and journalists in all other respects. No one amongst 
the sympathizers with Mohammedanism, mentions or laments 
over the Christians already murdered in Bulgaria, Roumelia, 
in Andrianople and in Asia-minor. 

The best men in Greece, and in Athens especially, have join- 
ed the insurrection in the Epirus, Thessaly and other points of 
ancient Greece. But since these populations rise for their 
most sacred rights against the beloved Turks, (the mo- 
dern representatives of humanity, virtue and civihzation, ) 
the Epirotes, the Thessalians, the inhabitants of Pindus 
and others are called robbers and cowards ; the Greeks, 
base runaways ; and all of them Russian hirelings ; as no 
one possesses either patriotism or love of nationality who 
does not side with the Mohammedans. Altogether the 
American public ought to prepare itself to hear strange 
things reported from the other side of the Atlantic, before 
this contest is over. 



18 THE TULKIJH QUESTION. 



YII. 

The whole Mossulman turpitude is to be upheld, for the 
sake of expediency and the so-called balance of power, a 
thing which in reality has never had any existence. "^^ 

The integrity and the so-called independence of the Otto- 
man empire is to to be preserved. 

But independence under the guarrantee of foreign powers — 
independence which rests on foreign succour, is such a pal- 
pable contradiction, in terms and ideas, that no further de- 
monstration is needed to prove its fallacy. The efforts of 
the Christian world it would seem ought to combine so that 
the Turks may quietly smoke their pipes, trampling down the 
Christians, while the Christian world must pay with its blood 
for this quietude of the Seraglio and the Osmanlis. 

The sponsors and the backers of the Kuran are chiefly the 
English and the French, acting under the benediction of the 
Pope. God forgive this old, broken and childish man, for 
he does not indeed know what he is about. 

The reasons spurring on the French are easily under- 
stood. If this people be not wholly brazen-faced, if, as I hope 
some sparks of dignity still remain unextinguished in this 
unhappy nation, it is very natural that they should be eager 
to gloss over with blood shed in what they try to represent 
as a glorious contest, the ignominious and burning shame 
with which the events of the last four years have branded 
them. 

The ruler of France knows well enough what he is about. 

* Where was the balance of power when in 1822 — 3, the holy alliance 
crushed the liberties of Italy and Spain, in spite of the protestations of 
England ? Does the balance of power exist on this continent ? Is Eng- 
land to establish it ? 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 19 



He understands how to strike a certain French fibre. France 
as well as Europe is still ruled by absurd, obsolete no- 
tions, and unhappily such a state of things will exist for 
some time to come. A new dynasty anywhere and above 
all in France, or any individuality whatever, which will grasp 
at power over European nations in general, knows that the 
best road to success, is to be surrounded with the halo of 
military glory. Blood spilt with this aim is believed to be the 
most exquisite manure for the soil in which the tree of a new 
lineage is to be planted. The Napoleonides are essentially 
children of bloodshed. 

Well, indeed, does it become the France of to-day both 
nation and ruler, to cry out about good faith, sacred rights, 
interests of humanity, and to accuse others of perfidy. 

The support g'ven to the Pope in 1849 against republic- 
ans, whose rights were even better than those of the men of 
February, was determined on by a full blooded republican 
government, and carried out — being urged on by the vote 
of a free representative body. 

No need to re-tell the events of 1 — 4 December 1851, 
they illustrate humanity, civilization and liberty. 

Since that day ten times more have been thrown into 
dungeons in France, than during the twenty-eight years of 
the reign of Nicholas, who has had two insurrections and 
several conspiracies to deal with. 

The galleys, the transportations en masse to Algeria, Cay- 
enne and other places out of Europe, far outnumber the 
banishments to Siberia. 

The proceedings of the police in France are more brutal 
than those in Poland and Russia ; and the treatment of poli- 
tical prisoners in Cayenne, is inhuman and cruel to a degree 
of which there is not the slightest idea in frozen Asia. 

Russia is under the iron rule of despotism. But she is so 
from olden times ; liberty which never existed there has not 



20 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 

consequently been recklessly destroyed by perjury, murder 
and a lawless soldiery. The llussian nation has never ap- 
plauded such acts, neither has it cheerfully or willingly given 
up the enjoyment of rights which it might once have pos- 
sessed. But an immense majority did so in France and are 
satisfied. 

I hate war ; generally no good results from it. It 
strengthens the chains of material servitude and moral ab- 
jection. The present war, whatever may be its results will 
strengthen despotism in Russia. Everywhere and in all times 
wars end in propitiating the worship of individuals, the 
sham hero-worship ; in retarding intelectual emancipation, 
the only true one of the masses. 

It is the same, — a sign of profound abjection, want of self- 
consciousness and dignity, whether the masses blindly follow 
the lead of a Mohammed, a Napoleon, a Czar, a Kossuth or a 
Mazzini. In either case the people is degraded.. More in- 
tensely still do I hate despotism. I shall not be its defen- 
der ; but facts are facts, truth is truth, and true light ought 
to be thrown upon the pending question. 

The Czar is a despot. Despotism is his trade. Often 
heartless. It is his character. Umbrageous and suspi- 
cious. This results naturally from the two former condi- 
tions. But he is neither faithless nor perfidious. Russia is 
fierce, savage, anything you like ; but both the Czar and 
Russia act openly. When the correspondence between 
Nicholas and the Cabinet of England shall have passed 
from the domain of the partial, unscrupulous Anglo-French 
journalism, from the hot-bed of excitement into the calm 
region of consciencious, historical criticism and shall be 
coolly weighed, the judgment formed of these documents 
will be different ; at any rate the Czar openly told England 
his ideas and wishes. 

Altogether neither the Emperor nor Russia have ever, 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 21 



during years of their political activity, put on the mask of 
liberalism. They coml3at it openly everywhere, with diplo- 
macy and arms wherever they meet it. They have not stirred 
up revolts, insurrections and revolutions in order to abandon 
and faithlessly betray them afterwards. Absolutism they have 
supported ever since they begun to interfere with the affairs 
of western Europe. Thus neither the Emperor uor Russia 
have ever perjured themselves or betrayed a cause which 
they have, at any time, espoused. 

If the Czar acting wisely or cunningly had seized upon 
Turkey in 1848 — and this he ought certainly to have done — 
the Russians might have occupied Constantinople before the 
news of the occupation could have reached Paris or Lon- 
don. But the Czar unwisely preferred meddling unnecessa- 
rily with western affairs, which in reality do not concern 
Russia at all. 

Russia, deemed formidable when acting on the defensive, 
has comparatively but few, if any, resources for pure aggres- 
sion towards Europe. Were such a momentary conquest 
of Europe effected, as by a miracle, it could not last long, 
and it is absurd even to admit its possibility. 

The conquests by the Romans, not to speak of those un- 
der Charlemagne and those partially effected by Napoleon, 
were made under wholly different conditions and combina- 
tions from those which Russia could bring to bear in an 
aggressive war. The present state of Europe wholly dif- 
fers from that one, in which it was some twenty cen- 
turies ago, or at the beginning of the present century. 

Allowing, however, for the sake of illustration that 
Russia has suddenly conquered Europe, there arises the 
insurmountable difficulty of confirming such a conquest, in 
the government of the States subdued. On account of 
this difficulty the partial attempts of the so-called universal 
monarchy as recorded in European history, have been and 



22 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 

must ever be, foiled. Political complications arising fromi 
such an attempt would be so formidable that no human i 
power — mental or physical — could control and cope withi 
them. 

Imagine Russia quietly occupying and administering civi- 
lized, populous and active Prussia, Germany, France or 
even Italy ! Such a centralization of power is absolutely 
impossible. It is an absurdity on its face ; and it is astonish- 
ing that any acute mind whatever, can indulge in such at 
vagary. The absorption of Poland is commonly pointed at, , 
as an evidence of the aggressive tendencies of Russia. But : 
though this evidence can be considered as a plausible one, it 
has no intrinsic value. Poland was internally dead, could 
not stand alone among her neighbors, and was in every re- 
spect inferior to vigorous, thriving and growing Russia. 

The so-called universal monarchy idea, effete and obsolete 
dotage as it is, is yet used as a mean by common-place poli- 
ticians to amuse, excite, or at times to frighten a credulous 
public. Certain fallacies cleave tenaciously to common 
minds ; and those were of a very common order which could 
indulge in dreams of establishing a universal monarchy, or 
lose their time in speculating, in ahstrado, about its pro- 
bability. 

In his correspondence, now so much spoken of, with the 
English cabinet, Nicholas confesses the difficulty of govern- 
ing an extensive empire. No one can deny that he possesses 
uncommon activity and energy. This confession is a groan 
of his soul, and the result of dearly acquired experience. 
Further an aggressive war on Europe, is, and will always 
be repulsive to the feelings and aspirations of the Russian 
people at large. They well know how such a mad attempt 
would be ruinous to the assailant. Peace with her influence, 
and benignant results is, as well or better, appreciated 
by the Russian people than by the French and Rome other 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 23 



European nations accustomed for centuries to prey upon 
neighboring or distant lands. 

England with her tendency to subjugate the whole world 
by her so-called free trade — thus rendering all nations her 
humble and impoverished tributaries — in the present state 
of human development, aims infinitely more to establish uni- 
versal dominion than does Russia. 

The still well remembered declaration of Earl Clarendon, 
that she will watch, united with France over the affairs and 
therefore over the destinies of the TWO HEMISPHERES, 
reveals longings for universal preponderance and of inter- 
ference with other people's affairs to which no act of the 
Czar can be compared. 

The destinies and the natural tendencies of Russia point 
visibly towards the east and towards central Asia. There 
they must and will be accomplished ; and no power should 
or will be able to arrest her expansion in that direction or 
check her progress in this, for her, predestined orbit. 

This subject, however, has been fully treated of by me iu 
another publication,* therefore I will not pursue it further 
here. 

Those who believe or found their hopes on the eventuality 
that in the present complication, — whatever may be the ex- 
tremity, even if the whole of western Europe with Germany 
and Austria should turn against Russia — that the Czar, driv 
en to the wall, will seek revenge or succour in stirring up re- 
volutions in Italy or Hungary ; ally himself with that party ; 
give it the slightest encouragement whatever, or stretch 
out his hand for a moment to men, representing revolutiona- 
ry ideas anywhere ; all these, I say, are most strangly mista- 
ken, as to his nature and character. Should he be driven to 
the Yolga, lose one-half of his possessions, neither he nor the 
* Russia as it is. New York, 1854, by D. Appleton & Company. 



24 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 



Russians would make or accept auy proposals from the par- 
tisans of a revolution. 

And then very likely Russia will not need to do so. 
When the extremity is at hand — she will openly appeal to 
her coreligionists in Turkey ; to her kindred, under the Otto- 
man sway. There she will find alUes more faithful than any- 
where else in Europe. And in making such an appeal, nei- 
ther will the Czar nor Russia belie themselves, or desert 
their true character. 

It is on the whole very strange, that England should be 
sympathizing everywhere with that which is rotten and pu- 
trid ; here, for example, with the leprous Musquitoes, caUing 
them her royal cousins ; there again, in Europe, with all 
kinds of polygamists and sodomites, — the deadly and irre- 
concilable enemies of all true Christians — if it be no crime 
to sympathize with the wrongs of the oppressed Africans. 
It is very strange indeed that it should l^e treason, perfidy, 
obscurantism to take up the case of coreligionists and cog- 
nate populations. When England rightfully raises her voice 
in favor of protestants, why should it be hypocrisy to de- 
fend the believers in the Greek Cross ? The Greeks, the Sla- 
vi and the other Christians of Turkey however, very well 
know that it is only since the Mohammedans began to feel 
the Russian bayonets, that they have behaved somewhat bet- 
ter, and have treated them even partially humanely. 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 25 



VIII 



S'lmilis simili gaudet. England in so heartily supporting 
the oppression of the majority by a reckless minority, is per- 
fectly consistent and in harmony with herself ; remaining true 
to her secular character. What else has England done for 
seven centuries and is still doing even now in Ireland ? crushing 
and starving out millions for the sake of a few masters, and 
of a church without parishoners. What else is England 
doing in India ? 

Right, justice, and civilization, are invoked by the Eng- 
lish ministers ; and on the whole face of the earth, amongst 
Christians, ay, even savages, there does not exist a population 
that is at once more abject, brutalized, and deprived of every 
feeling and notion of morality than the poor of England, and 
the population generally, of her mining districts. The par- 
liamentary blue books and reports of the Commissioners, all 
ofificial and trustworthy documents, are fully satisfactory on 
this head. It is therefore very natural that England should 
become the knight-errant of the corrupt minority formed by 
the Turks. But the policy of England ever was, and always 
is, treacherous and hypocritical ; America herself knows 
this. 

When Poland and Hungry rose for national independence, 
did the English government risk any demonstration on their 
behalf during many months of protracted and bloody strug- 
gles ? Lord Palmerstou full of his aristocratic hauteur un- 
blushingly replied in the House, some few years ago, to an at- 
tack of Mr. Ansley, that he (Lord Palmcrston,) never m- 
3 



26 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 



tended to do anything for Poland ; that it was not his fault 
if Mr. Walewski, the present French Ambassador in Lon- 
don, then (in 1831,) a Polish agent there, considered a few 
w^ords proferred to him at an evening party, by way of com- 
mon courtesy as sympathy, as an official demonstration, in fact 
and converted them into a diplomatic despatch to his credulous 
government, and further that beyond this single occurrence, his 
Lordship never exchanged words either v/ith the Polish i.gent 
or government. 

What did the English Government do for Hungary ? Can 
Kossuth or Pulsky show any documental proofs of its active 
sympathy ? Encouraging words indeed, have not been want- 
ing, but there was no act of humanity during the struggle, 
or even afterwards, during the murderous executions. 

His Lordship's (Lord P's) action in the name of England 
has not been always so heartless and harmless. In her name 
he shook hands with every government of France, 1 ut most 
heartily of all, with that of 1851, still dripping as it was 
with the blood of republicans. 

And now as for Italy, and Sicily. In the year 1846-47, Eng- 
lishmen in general, and the government agents in particular, 
were most active in exciting hope and in encouraging acts. 
Everybody recollects the triumphal progress of Lord Minto 
and his liberal public manifestations. Both Lords, were very 
well aware that by the excitement of the one party, out- 
breaks would be provoked, and that Piedmont, Italy, the re- 
forming Pope and Naples, would come to blows with Austria ; 
the rulers with the oppressed. Lord Palmerston fraternized 
with the Sicihans and recognised their independence — and 
then, wholly gave them up to the tender mercies of the King 
of Naples. 

England abandoned Piedmont in its unequal struggle with 
Austria and only at last showed her sympathetic activity in 
the case of a paltry armistice. 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 27 

During the winter from 1847-48 in Tsaples, (and I was 
there myself,) the house of the EugUsh charge— if I recol- 
lect well, a near relation of Lord Palmerston, was tlte head- 
quarters for the meetings of the hberals and the focus of con- 
spiracy ; there pamphlets against tyranny, were printed and 
thence distributed amongst the people. But when it came to 
an open struggle, there indeed was an absolutist aide-de-camp 
of the Czar, openly encouraging the frightened Ferdinand, 
but there was no English liberal to hearten the people. 
And w^hen Hberty was mortally struck, and the prisons were 
filled with martyrs, no English man-of-war appeared before 
Naples to the rescue of principles, when only a few years be- 
fore, a whole fleet menaced the city ; since Sulphur and Eng- 
lish pockets were in danger. 

If England or any of her ministry whatever shall, at any 
time, actively support the maintenance of the Spanish do- 
mination over Cuba, and try to menace the United States, it 
will not be on account of principles or any faithfulness to trea- 
ties and allies, but shnply because she knows when the United 
States have annexed Cuba that her exports there will be 
considerably crippled. 

The industry of the Northern States will easily crowd out 
that of England from a mart which then will become nation- 
al — American. Further, England recognises the fact, that 
when Cuba is annexed, the productions of the Island will be 
centupled, and consequently annihilate those of the West In- 
dies. Finally the revenues of Cuba form the sole guarantee 
of the Enghsh creditors of Spain. All this accounts for 
English devotion to the alliance. 

Lord Palmerston can assume any cloak or masque suitable 
for the circumstance, and the time being. His Kfe reahses 
the dictum of an ancient writer : Omnia serviUter pro do7ni- 
natione : being servile to a Sovereign or according as the wind 
blows, to a popular agitation. His name will remain on the 



28 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 

records as that of a diplomatic trickster, as a political Es- 
cobar, both as rep^ards principles and nations. 



IX. 



Europe is one great area of oppression. Only its intensity 
is variagated, and of different shadowings and degrees. The 
oppressed, in England in various phases and manner, number 
several millions. France yielded, and yields willingly to the 
chains put on her. Italy, Germany and Russia complete the 
whole. The clang of chains is general, only differently tuned. 
Time will and must come, when an end will be put to this. 
But when ? — there is the enigma. 

At present the current dictum is the so called coming strug- 
gle. It is expected every sping and every fall ; predicted by 
the weatherwise ; l;y great men, but from some cause or other, 
it is not yet on the way. It was positively announced for the 
month of May 1S52 ; but some months before, unanticipated ^ 
events took place ; events, not thought of by anybody,' — and 
the coming sirvggk was postponed, to an indefinite period.. 
At present, it is to appear as a result of the complication ini 
the East, together with the probable general war. 

There are as many chances for, as against, its appearance, 
1 hope, and wish, for general emancipation. But study, the 
experience of more than thirty years of a revolutionary life 
and a close o]3servation of events, have taught me that, phe 
nomena seldom or ever appear from the side whence the; 
are positively expected. They never come by appointment 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 20 

History acts in her own way, chiefly by surprises which 
baffle all calculations. 

Few, if any, of the convulsions which in those thirty years 
shook the world, were the immediate results of long prepara- 
tions, nay, even of conspiracies. 

After the celebrated movement of the Carbonari, from 
1820, — 23, the only partially successful conspiracy was, the 
Polish one of 1830. And these two were so, because their 
focus was the army. 

The Paris revolution of July with its numerous offshoots 
was not the result of a conspiracy. Neither was that of 
1848. 

The men who appealed to Germany from Heidelberg in 
1848, were not prepared to do so, two months before. The 
events which originated in Italy in 1848 were not evoked by 
that secret association which had been so actively promoted 
for years. A few votes cast into the urns of the conclave, 
by giving the majority to Mastai over Lambruschini, were 
the real revolutionists. No body then expected that the 
first blast would come from the Vatican. 

The movement in Hungary was began by legally constitu- 
ted powers ; being impelled from without by other events. 

The outbreaks in Vienna and Berlin took everybody by 
surprise, and victory was easily obtained. 

The coming struggle may not appear again this time, for 
fhe simple reason that its march has been already traced be- 
forehand ; its very starting-point, its resting places marked 
down, forces distributed, and the leaders, dictators and gene- 
rals, nay, even prophets nominated. However, up to the 
present day, seldom indeed, has one and the same generation 
much less the same individuals, had the chance to act twice, 
at intervals, on a revolutionary arena. Once unsuccessful, 
they have proved themselves to be either unlucky, unskilful, 
or not equal to the magnitude of the task. 



30 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 

I\'early every insurrection which has burst out has been 
originally distorted from the right course by its own parents. 
It is one thing to make programmes and speeches and another 
to act, and to direct the movements of masses and of a na- 
tion. 

It was not any foreign influence, but the French them- 
selves, that falsified the essence, the spirit indeed, of the re- 
volution of February. Cavaignac &c. began it; Louis Na- 
poleon directed the death-blow. After the cou]^ d^etat of De- 
cember, wise journalists and politicians proclaimed that the 
inexhaustible gold of the autocrat had assisted the deed. This 
assertion was directly opposed to common sense, but still it 
was believed. It was soon found however, that the real pro- 
moters of the affair were in fact, the hilkts of the Bank of 
France. The autocrat was the last to recognise the coiip and 
and subsequently the Empire. 

German politicians and journalists are the greatest whiners 
in the known world. They have always had their mouths 
full of accusations against every one for all German mishaps. 
So it was with them in the past, and so it is now. They 
complain that they are either taken in or betrayed. No fo- 
reign or Russian influence prevented the Germans at the com- 
mencement of the events of 1848, getting at once rid of 
their Kings and Princes, if they had had the heart to 
do so. 

Nearly 1500 of the 'talents' (Germ. Intelligenzen) were 
gathered together in various parliaments of the country. 
And at first they were backed by a great part of the people. 
Why did they not act ? No one interfered with them in 
Prussia, in Berhn, but Prussians themselves. The army com- 
posed of a national and popular element, of the Landwekr, 
restored and strengthened the royal power. And then the 
Prussians fought against the republicans of Dresden and of 
Baden, and gave up SchTeswig Holstein. 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 



This proves in the end either that the majorities are not 
as yet revolutionary (otherwise how could they be oppressed 
by the minorities,) or it proves that the leaders of the move- 
ments have been everywhere outwitted by their domestic an- 
tagonists. 

Central Europe with Italy, France, Germany and Austria 
has a population of one hundred milHons. The arsenals are 
full of arms and amunition, enough indeed, to arm the whole 
male population. These countries are overflowing with ca- 
pital, and have immense revenues ; therefore no foreign action 
whatever could prevent the people doing as it pleased. For if 
this enormous mass of people should ever chose to rise against 
its internal oppressors, what power could cope with it ? But if 
there now exists no decided majority for a rising in these 
countries themselves, of what use can some hundred thou- 
sands of dollars, any number of guns and saddles, or active 
volunteers be, when sent to them from abroad ? 

In 1848 the fall of Hungary and Italy depended alone — 
but this only towards the close upon foreign intervention. In 
Hungary, Russian interference precipitated the catastrophe, 
but twice before that, the Hungarians might have taken Vi- 
enna. Was it any foreign influence whatever or Russian troops 
that prevented Gorgey and Kossuth from doing this ? I do 
not suppose that Hungary could have stood by herself much 
longer ; but I do know from undoubted authority, if Russia 
had not sent her troops, that the Hapsburgs — obliged to 
choose between the loss of Italy or Hungary, being unable 
to save both — were determined to give up Lombardy, to re- 
cal Radetsky with his 120,000 picked troops, most of them 
Germans and Croats — and then Hungary would have been 
finally reconquered, and Italy free, save from the French pro 
popery intervention. 

So much altogether for accusations and recriminations. 



32 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 



X. 

It is impossible to lay down a scheme of events that may- 
result from the Eastern Question. There is war, and Eng- 
land has to carry out her mongrel liberalism. As yet, his- 
tory teaches us that a naval power proves insufficient in any 
struggle with a continental one. A naval battle, the des- 
truction even of the ports, will not decide the fate of Rus- 
sia. And if Russia do not give an opportunity for a battle, 
what then ? 

Russia has no commercial marine ; however, she can ex- 
port to neutral Germany by land, and even if she do not sell 
her raw produce, she will cook and use it, and so never starve. 
At present England purchases them to the extent of thirteen 
millions of pounds sterling, ; in the English market, the only 
rising prices are those of Russian produce. And it is yet to 
be seen how England and her little ones can do without 
it. 

Further it will be a curious thing to hear, the pious, bibli- 
cal, high-church English; the French, protectors of the Pope, 
sing aTmn to invocations made for the blessing of ALLAH 
and the prophet, and to see them assist in the scalping of 
dead bodies and occasional prisoners, things already perpetra- 
ted by the troops of Omar Pascha, the liberator of human- 
ity. 

My forebodings of the future of European and Russian 
liberty are rather gloomy, as coimected with any, and more 
especially with the present war. What if the Czar should 
have the best of it ? Eventus belli dubius esse is an old say- 
ing. 



THE TURHRiS QUESTION, 33 

At any rate Russia goes to work with a quiet, but un- 
shaken decision ; fully aware of the magnitude of her task. 
There is no rhodomontade on her side. Lord Palraerston and 
Sir Charles Napier on the other hand have already, what be- 
tween port and champagne, burnt fleets, stormed forts, bom- 
barded cities, divided the spoils, and sold the skin of the Bear. 
But generally history punishes similar rhodomontades and 
such arrogant behavior. 

The Poles are already distributing in Constantinople, coia 
or medallions, with the bust of the sham-king Czartoryiski, 
with the inscription rcsurexit. France, or rather the only 
man who there enjoys the right to speak his opinion, Louis 
Napoleon, has even remodelled the whole map of Europe. He 
imitates his uncle well, by offering Poland to Prussia, as did 
the uncle to Russia, previous to the Campaign of 1812. 

I recollect that at that time, Marshal Junot and Jerome, 
then King of Westphalia, on their march to Russia present- 
ed to my father a map containing the road to India with all 
the details of the rallying points for the armies, together with 
their resting places &c. On the map there was the medallion 
of the mighty man with the inscription : Diew an del, Na- 
fohon siir la terrc. The result is known, and the man who 
traced the Indian map, was the beloved of victory, slept on 
battle-fields, and rested not content with warming his feet 
quietly on the andirons in the Tuilleries. 
4 



84 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 



XI. 



History proves from the remotest times, that the policy 
of political refugees generally has no basis. Altogether they 
always overrate their influence over the country, to which 
they belong. Abroad, they still chng to the notions on 
which they acted at home ; unaware apparently that time 
moves on, that a new generation has arisen, new and differ- 
ent events and relations sprung up, and so the ground dissap- 
pears from beneath their feet. Thirty years of observation 
and experience have taught me enough of it. Refugees in- 
variably promise too much and events do not jusjtify them. 

When Napoleon undertook the campaign of 1812, he was 
assured by the Poles in his service as well as by his various 
diplomatic agents, that on his appearance in Russia, the peo- 
ple and serfs would rise and join him as a liberator. Ex- • 
perience taught him tlie reverse. He drove the Russian 
troops out of Lithuania, only eighteen years after the last 
dismemberment of Poland, when ancient recollections and 
sympathies ought to have been still alive ; and how many of 
the Lithuanian people joined his or the Polish standard?' 
Not three thousand men and of these, the chief part was i 
composed of nobles, which is the genuine Polish element. . 
Some few influential aristocrats as Radziwill, Chodkiewitch, 
Gelgud formed single regiments and that was all. 

During the war in Poland in the year 1831, thousands 
upon thousands of Lithuanians and Poles from other ancient 
Polish provinces served in the Russian army, forming even i 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 35 

a separate corps, called the ' Lithuanian ' one. For nearly | 
ten months this corps was in the middle of Poland, surroun- 
ded by Polish peasants and fighting against us. Soldiers | 
from one camp could pass to the other with ease and securi- 
ty. But scarcely a thousand soldiers joined the Polish army i 
and not more than four or five subaltern officers. | 
In Lithuania the nobility rose in numbers but not the pea- j 
santry. The same even took place, to a smaller extent, in ■ 
Yolhynia and in Podolia. 

These are sad but nevertheless true facts. , 

In the actual Russian army there exist no special Polish i 

regiments. The Polish recruits being scattered singly ; 

throughout the whole, the chances, if any, are consequently \ 

small that the Turko-Polish legions' will be strengthened by j 

numerous fugitves. If Austrian troops should become involv i 

ed and be opposed to Turks or Franco-Hungarian legions, i 

very likely the results will be the same as have been repea | 

tedly experienced with the Poles. I 



36 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 



XII. 



Among the reasons mentioned to excite sympathy on be- 
half of Turkey, the most prominent one is the asyhuii af- 
forded by the Porte to the Hungarian refugees after tlie 
catastrophe of 1849. Without intending to depreciate tliis 
act of generous hospitahty, some explanations cannot be. 
superfluous. 

Throwing aside the question as to how far the affinity of 
race could have exercised its influence — I may mention that 
Hungarian insurrectionists and nobles, for the space of two 
centuries, have been generally, in some way or other, allies 
of Turkey, History herself, points to many events con- 
nected with the names of Gabor, Zapoly, and Tekely ; to 
the siege of Vienna by the Turks alhed with Hungarians, 
whence they were repulsed by Sobieski and the Duke of 
Lorraine, 

Further, the asylum given to political refugees, is as old as 
history, and belongs to the number of those little friendly 
services, which neighboring powers are always glad to render 
to each other. Without going far back for examples, we find 
that France, even under the elder Bourbons — not to speak of 
Louis Philif)pe — gave an asylum to Spaniards and Italians 
proscribed by other Bourbons. Florence and Tuscany, with 
an Austrian Arch-Duke as ruler, was, up to the year of 
1849, a refuge for Romans, Neapolitans, Lombards, Pied- 
monteese and Modeneese, obliged to fly from their liomcs ; 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 31 



altlioiig'h reclamations and objections from their respective 
governments were not wanting. 

Colletta, one of the most eminent Neapolitan patriots of 
the Carbonari epoch, lived in Florence — and published there 
a ' History of Naples/ which has placed him by the side of 
Tacitus — and ultimately died there. 

During the Polish insurrection of 1831, Austria and Prus- 
sia alhed to Russia, allowed hundreds of their Polish sub- 
jects to join the Polish army ; only a few of them were 
punished on their return home, and this only in a disciphnary 
way. After the fall of Warsaw, Austria and Prussia al- 
lowed thousands of Poles to enter their dominions and reach 
France, giving pay to numbers of them, and entertaining 
others for two or three years. Prussia allowed some chiefs 
and generals, even to buy estates and establish themselves in 
the Dukedom of Posen, where for twenty years numerous 
Polish refugees came, both from France and other countries 
to reside. 

After my flight from Russia, in 1844, 1 found a refuge for 
several months in Prussia, notwithstanding that my extradi- 
tion was imperiously demanded from St. Petersburg, in virtue 
of an existing convention between the two governments. 
Count Arnim, the Prussian minister of the Interior was wil- 
ling to give me up, the King, however, generously refused to 
do so. 

Several chiefs and eminent leaders of the Polish insurrec- 
tion of 1830, entered Prussia, and not one was given up to 
Russia. Prince Czartoryiski resided in Austria for some 
time, and it was even rumored that the deceased Emperor 
Francis paid from his private purse, to the Prince, as the son 
of a former Austrian field-marshal, a handsome yearly al- 
lowance. 

General Skrzynetski, chief commander of the Polish army, 
resided on his parole in Prague, until the year 1835, when he 



58 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 

secretly left the city, being lured away by Montalembert and 
other iiltra-moutane Fraiico-Belgo partizans, to take the com- 
mand of the Belgian troops against a menaced invasion by 
Holland. 

Wladislas Ostrovvski, the president or marshal of the Po- 
lish insurrectionary Diet, a man of immense influence, and 
who stood foremost amongst his fellow patriots, is still living 
unmolested in Austria. True it is, that about 1833-34 nu- 
merous Polish refugees were expelled from that country, but 
it was only after a conspiracy had been discovered. Austria 
sent them at her own cost to America. 



XIII. 

A great similitude exists, in many respects, in a com- 
parison of the reasons of the war between Russia and 
Turkey in 1828, and the present one. It is a matter of pe- 
culiar interest to observe how the events of that time were 
judged of by an eminent American, John Quincy Adams. 

In the American Annual Register for the years 1827 — 8 
and 9, pubUshed in New York 1830 — the writer points to 
the good faith of Russia towards her (then) allies, and her for- 
bearance, " For which the sovereign obtained no credit what- 
ever. In the l^eghniing of the war he disclaimed all purposes 
of aggrandizement, and he kept the promise. But by tliis 
war, Greece was finally emancipated, and Moldavia, Wal- 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 39 



lacliia and Servia freed from the immediate pressure of the 
pashas and of the Divan," 

The writer says further, "That the fact that the career 
of victory was by the order of the Czar arrested short of Con- 
stantinople, is perhaps to be regretted as it regards the cause 

of Christendom and of humanity , that the Ottoman 

Empire is in the agonies of death. The struggles of the 
Sultan in his extremity, to save himself by adopting Euro- 
pean improvements in the art of war, cannot avert the fate 
of his Empire and of his religion. The improvements in the 
arts of war, like those in the arts of peace, which have 
raised the men of the European race above the ancient, and 
above the Mohammedan level of humanity, flow from the 
same perennial fountain, and that fonntan is Christianity — " 
I call it Christian civilization.* 



XIV. 

Whatever may be the other results of the present confla- 
gration, Russia forcibly brings the question of Turkish and 
Moliammedan existence in Europe to an unavoidable and final 
issue. No patching up will be possible. The after-thought 
of history and of civilization, will be thankful to'Russia for it. 
The Christians, the Greeks, the Slavi, very likely will not be 
induced to submit longer to Turkish supremacy, for the sake 
of European expediency. At present the Turks alone have 
the right to go about armed ; when the Christians sha.ll have 
* See Russia as it is, Chap. xiii. 



40 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 

acquired the same right, then assuredly French and EiigHsh 
watchmen will continually have to accompany Christians and 
Turks, to prevent them from fighting. If the Christiana 
ever be fully emancipated ; that is, raised to an equal social 
level with the Turks, and thus get the administration of Jus- 
tice and of government into their hands — and less- than this 
they cannot accept even under a protectorate — then the 
Turks, Islamism, with its pashas, kadis, muftis, harems and 
seraglio are doomed with a speed wholly incalculable. 

If the Turks broadly and radically accept European civili- 
zation, with Christianity as its only source, then they will cease 
to be Turks, and as an indolent race they will quickly disa]> 
pear from the world-scene. In every respect a new formation 
must arise and step into the place occupied by the Moslems. 
How far, however, the native populations of Turkey, after 
centuries of the most oppressive and abject tyranuy, may be 
apt to organize themselves — how much nerve they ma^ have 
for it — time itself must show ; but at any rate the domi- 
nation of the Kuran over them must have an end. 



XV. 



The Slavi, forming the immense majority, groaning now 
under the Turkish rule, who against fearful odds are making 
some slow progress in the rudiments of civilization, must 
therefore finally become emancipated. No matter how 
But events are working in their behalf everywhere. For 
the last eight years, every movement which has shakes 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 41 

Europe, has resulted nearly exclusively in favor of the Slavic 
race, — of the people — the peasantry. 

The inrurrectionary movement so heedlessly undertaken 
by the nobihty in GaUitzia in 1846, turned out, to be benefi- 
cial for the whole peasantry of that province. The peasants 
became liberated from the crushing, feudal oppression of the 
nobles ; they acquired free homesteads, and these are still 
strictly maintained by the Austrian judiciary. They are at 
the present time masters of the land and of their labor. 

The scythe of the outraged peasant has severed for ever 
the chain of servitude between him and the noble. The 
same resulted in the Austrian dominions, after the move- 
ments of 1848. The Slavi did not provoke them ; they 
were in the second rank ; but finally they were the people 
benefited by this fiery erruption. 

In Bohemia, Moravia, Slavakia, Croatia, Woiewadina, Ba- 
nat, Dalmatia, the peasant, as peasant, became liberated 
from the pressure exercised by landlords and nobles. The 
Slavi, as Slavi, saw an end put to the haughty rule of the 
Maghyars, who had tried to destroy their language and 
nationality. 

The Slavi of Turkey did not provoke the present compli- 
cation ; but all signs point out that they will reap the results. 

Europe will finally eject the Turks, notwithstanding the 
good wishes and the efforts of the Anglo-French. This has 
been for centuries the aim of her combined efforts, the wish 
of all true and honest men. Without going far back 
for authorities, I appeal to that of the late Lord Hol- 
land, whose lofty and enlightened liberalism is beyond doubt. 
As late as in the year of 1830, Lord Holland said : " The 
first thing is to drive the Turks back into Asia. In Europe 
they have been nothing but wasters and destructionists. 
Nothing thrives ; but everything perishes under their sway. 



42 THE TURKISH QUESTION. 

This jealousy and dread of Russia may prop up the Ottoman 
Empire for a time, but nothing can keep it up loDg. It is 
rotten at the foundation and in all its parts." 

Lord John Russell, his pupil, for a long time coincided in 
the same views. But the author of the work on " The Estab- 
lishment of the Turks in Eivroj)e,^^ has changed them for diplo- 
matic expediency. 



XVI. 



The crescent will be shattered. This can be said without 
any pretention to prophecy. Nature in her works, does not 
recur to restorations of what is worn out and withered, and 
what has already lost the inborn conditions of life. Neither 
does history. Whatever in the realm of Nature shrinks and 
can exist no longer by its own essence — whatever this essence 
may be — and dies out, dissolves to make room for or nourish 
new creations. 

The process of history is similar. She is original, and ever 
moving ; she looses no time in nursing decrepitude, or in 
patching up decomposition ; she does not carefully take by 
the arm and drag forward that which possesses no life, no 
strength for an onward march. As long as the Ottomans 
breathed even a ferocious but strong spirit, history was on 
their side, In the present issue, between Christians and 



THE TURKISH QUESTION. 43 1 



Islams, between the Greeks, the Slavi, the Russians — ad- 
mitting that both parties are barbarians — the one is in- 
cresing, growing, expanding and tending onward ; the other 
diminishing, withering, and sinking down both morally and 
physically. History and humanity will make the righteous 
choice. 

New York, April 27, 1854. 



THE END. 



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TURKEY &. THE T U R K S.— S L ADE'S TRAVELS 



NOTICES FROM THE PRESS. 



Recent events have made the Turkish Empire as interesting now, that it 
is threatened by Russian liordes, as it was in the 16th century, when a Tar- 
tar could ride with the Sultan's firman, respected all the way, from the banks 
of the Volga to the confines of Morocco — when its armies threatened Vi- 
enna, and its fleets ravaged the costs of Italy. It then excited the fears of 
civilised Europe — it now excites its cupidity. * * * * 

Admiral Slade's long residence in the East, has made him familiar with 
every phase of the Turkish character, and the reader will with his assist- 
ance be able to judge, pretty accuretely, of the present state of the Otto- 
man Emi)ire. * * * * 

Considering the importance of the subject, its wide-spread influence on 
the Empire ,especially that portion of it inhabited by the Greeks, the Au- 
thor has devoted a few page;^ to the late Sultan's reforming policy. Still 
admitting the absolute neces.-'ity for reform in Turkey, he has endeavoured 
to show wherein Mahraoud failed ; in attempting too much at once, and in 
commencing at the wrong end ; so that reform, instead of being a blessing 
to his people, has proved in some instances, a curse. Preface. 

[From the New York Daily National Democrat, of April 20.] 
The present war has made all works relating to the Turkish Empire, of 
interest, even when, as not unfrequeutly happens, their authors give us the 
benefit of only a very imperfect knowledge of the subject upon which they 
treat. It is therefore, with the greater pleasure that we call the attention 
of the public to a book on Turkey which from the Author's long residence 
in the East, and his intimate acquaintance with every phase of Turkish 
character, promises to be as reliable as entertaining. The description of Con- 
stantinople, " the Pearl of Europe," of Adrianople, Schumla and the Bul- 
garians will be found full of interest. * * * 
The work is well written, in an easy unaffected style ; while thetypogra- 

phy and mechanical execution are such as reflect credit upon the firm by 
whom it is issued. 

From the New York True American, of April 22. 
The most valuable part of this interesting work is a narrative of a voyage 
with the Capitan Pasha, which Admiral Slade has described with charac- 
teristic effect and observation. To the original work, the American Editor 
has added an appendix, affording some important observations upon the 
Greek Church, the Turkish Press and the port of Sebastopol — the Russian 
stronghold — a series of papers, which -s^^.*' materially aid the reader upon 
points relating to the existing war in the Orient. 

From the Philadelphia Public Ledger, of April 21. 
This volume is written by the English naval officer, Slade, who is now Ad- 
miral of the Turkish fleet, and who has possessed good opportunities for 
seeing the Turk and his country. 

[From the Baltimore Clipper, April 21, 1854. 
The author certainly enjoyed every facility for obtaining accurate infor- 
mation of the country and people about which he has written. 



OPINIONS OF THE AMERICAN AND ENGLISH PRESS. 

From the Daily Union, City of Washington, April 21, 1854. 
At this time, when all eyes are turned to the East, such a book is pecu- 
liarl}' acceptable There is something of an air of romance connected with 
the details, especially those which describe his cruise in the Black sea with 
the Captain Pasha, which makes his pages particularly attractive. Those 
^yho take an interest in the pending war between Turkey and Russia, will 
lind Slade's Travels a valuable assistant in forming correct opinions. 
From the Eepublican and Argus, Washington, April 20, 1854. 
This is a very opportune publication. 

From the Washington Sentinel, April 21, 1854. 
A glance through this volume has given us a high opinion of it. The 
style is easj' , fluent, and polished. The features of Turkish life, the man- 
ners and customs of the people, and their peculiar social and domestic habits 
are sketched in the most captivating manner. 

From the Boston Daily Post, April 25th. 
Everything about Turkey is now coming out, but " Slade's Travels" are 
superior to any other production with which we are acquainted relating to 
the Ottomans. His descriptions of naval and mihtary matters, and of the pe- 
culiarities of Turkish life, are very entertaining. 

From the Boston Atlas, April 24, 1854. 
A long residence in the country has made him familiar with the 
Turkish people, and enables him to judge with some presumable accuracy 
of the present condition of the empire. 

From the Boston Evening Traveler April 25, 1854. 
This volume will be found to contain much matter of an interesting 
character. 

From the Evening Star, Washington, April 21, 1854. 
The author is Adolphus Slade, an Englishman, who is an admiral of the 
Turkish fleet J a devil-may care sailor, who tells of the Turks and Turkey 
just as he knows them ; treating subjects of peculiar interest at this time 
in a very agreeable, j-et blunt way. Nothing likely to interest an American 
inquirer relative to Turkey, her people, their manners, customs, &c., seems 
to have escaped him. 



CRITICAL NvOTICES IN ENGLAND. 

" One of the most valuable and interesting works which has been placed 
in our bauds, on the domestic state of Turkey."' — Westminster. 

" We do not know when we have met with two volumes more amusing — 
they are full of highly entertaining and curious matter." — Coitrt Journal. 

" The work before us supplies the best description of this remarkable 
nation." — Courier. 

" One of the most amusing and interesting of oriental travellers, none 
having ever equalled him in a thorough knowledge of the true state of 
society, and the true character of the Turks." — Spectator. 

" We can warmly recommend this book for perusal, it is not only very 
amusing but very valuable." — MetrGpolitan. 

" We can assure our readers that no records of travels in modem times, 
with which we are acquainted, presents so many features of general attrac- 
tion as the volume before us." — Blackwood. 



SLADE'S TRAVELS ItM TURKEY. 

TUMEY AID THE TURKS. 

BY 

ADOLPHUS SLADE, 

ADMIRAL OF THE TURKISH FLEET. 
PAGES— 336. CLOTH, ILLUSTRATED— PRICE ONE DOLLAR. 

Contents. 

SCIO, TENEDOS, STAMBOUL, REVIEW. KHOSREW,LORD 
COCHRANE, CAIQUES, BOSPHORUS, DELHI SULTA- 
NA, SELIMIER, CAPITAN PASHA, BLACK SEA, 
FLEET, ARTILLERY, COSSACK DEVOTIONS, 
MANCEUVRES, SIDNEY SMITH, SQUALL, 
CHASE, CLEAR FOR ACTION, SULTAN, 
CAPITAN PASHA'S WIVES, ELOPE- 
MENT, EXECUTION, THE SERA- 
GLIO, EUNUCHS, KITCHEN, 
WOMEN, TURKISH MIN- 
ISTERS, SLAVERY IN 
TURKE Y, DANCING 
GIRLS, SE B AS- 
TOP OL, 
ODESSA, PALGUE, BULGARIAN VILLAGE, RUSSIANS, 
GRAND VIZIR, STORY-TELLERS, WOMEN 
MARKET, BATHS, GREEK BEAU- 
TY, GOLDEN GATE, SrC. 



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Author of " The History of the Valley of the Mississiju^i,''^ " Life in the 
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1854. 



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W. T. having had more than fourteen years personal 
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the wishes of the Publishers of works which are intended 
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